


head of a hog

by kitties



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 08:24:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16615400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitties/pseuds/kitties
Summary: In which Dean and Seamus inherit the Hog's Head Inn.





	head of a hog

Aberforth dies and, even though he was old and it was expected, it's sad. Also, Dean and Seamus inherit a pub. And not just any pub. The Hog's Head. The dirtiest, smelliest, darkest, filthiest pub in all Wizarding England. Possibly the whole Wizarding World.

"I can't believe we actually used to hang out here," says Seamus, surveying the grimy countertop.

Dean grimaces. "You and Neville must have been desperate. Was the Room of Requirement that bad?"

"You try to get good an' drunk with a bunch of crying third-years and Parvati teaching everyone how to stupefy right next to you."

Dean understands. Parvati can be intense.

Seamus has wandered into the back room behind the bar. "C'mere, Dean, take a look," he yells. Dean vaults over the counter and takes a look. It's alcohol. A lot of alcohol. All of it looking like it was bought sometime before Dumbledore was born. There's even some Muggle stuff, untouched.

"So this is where he was gettin' it from," says Seamus. "I always figured he just used _Gemino_ or somethin'."

"How did you even graduate Hogwarts?" Dean rolls his eyes. "You can't use _Gemino_ on food."

"Yeah, but it's not food! It's drink."

"You're an idiot." But Dean isn't paying attention. "Hey, Seamus, do you think _Scourgify Maxima_ would work?"

"I don't really," says Seamus, unscrewing a bottle of something purple and strong-smelling.

"Might as well try." Dean leaps back over the counter. Standing in front of the door, he pulls out his wand and waves it a few times. " _Scourgify Maxima_!"

There is a loud bang and an eruption of white smoke. Dean blinks a few times. A few chairs have toppled over, but the pub is no cleaner. "I can't fucking believe this," he grumbles. "Maybe Aberforth put some sort of dirtiness charm on here? He _was_ mental..."

"This shite isn't even that bad!" calls Seamus from the back room. "Tastes like plums!"

So they end up getting drunk and passing out, Dean upstairs on Aberforth's dirty couch and Seamus underneath one of the tables.

...

"You're such stupid twats," says Lavender, tossing her hair behind her shoulders. "What are you planning on doing?"

"What do you think, luv? We're going to fix this place up, make it clean, yeah? An' then sell it for a ton of gold." Seamus puts his arm around her waist and kisses her nose.

"You stink." Lavender pushes him away hardheartedly.

Parvati chokes back a laugh. "Yeah, good luck cleaning this place up."

"Come on, we're wizards, it shouldn't be that hard! Look!" Dean points his wand at one of the windows. " _Scourgify_." Nothing happens.

Lavender and Parvati erupt in laughter. "Oh no," chokes Parvati out. "You're gonna have to do manual labour!" They're both clutching their sides. "Better dig out one of those muggle cleaning broomsticks!"

"And a - a - vazoom!" giggles Lavender

"Do you mean a vacuum?" asks Dean, but everyone ignores him.

"You shouldn't sell it," says Luna.

Everyone turns to look at her. "When did you get here?" asks Lavender, her forehead wrinkled. Seamus is staring at her, his mouth open.

"Oh, five minutes ago." She twirls her hair around her finger dreamily.

"Er," Dean tries not be rude. "We didn't really tell you..."

"Oh, I read your brain waves, of course. They can be very powerful when two people have a connection."

Parvati and Lavender start giggling again, but Dean feels kind of flattered. It's nice that Luna thinks they have a connection. They do. Dean felt it when they were at Shell Cottage together, and, even after the war, the feeling remained. It confused him a little at first, but he accepted it. Somehow, after everything that happened, after everything they lost, it didn't really matter anymore that Luna was eccentric and a bit strange.

"What should we do with it if we're not gonna sell it?" Seamus looks interested. Oh no, oh no, oh no. Dean can already tell where this is going.

"Why, open it up," says Luna. She waves her hand vaguely. "But make sure you rid it of the Grey Greasy Gudnobs first."

"That's actually a good idea," muses Parvati. " I mean, not the greasy whatevers part, that's absolute rubbish, sorry, Luna. But opening it up! You could be bartenders!"

"Bartenders?" says Seamus and Dean together.

"But I'm going to be an artist." Dean scratches his head. "I mean, I'm working on it."

Lavender raises both eyebrows. "Send me an owl when you get rich."

"Hey, I illustrated the children's version of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them!" It was a proud moment for him.

"Yeah, and they paid you like shit," Parvati points out.

"They do have a point," says Seamus. "Think about it! We do some fixin' up an' we open it up again to the general public! The same old Hog's Head, except the food isn't ten years old an' it doesn't smell like goat shite. They'll love it!"

"By they, you mean all the criminals who come here, you know."

"Yes, I can smell the scent of chimera eggs from seven months ago." Luna sniffs. "But there were professors here, too. Vector and Sinistra."

"What, you can smell them?" asks Parvati.

Luna gives her a withering look. "No. I've just seen them here a few times when I was visiting. They're having a love affair."

"Seamus, I don't know anything about mixing drinks," says Dean desperately. "Or preparing food. Or running an inn. The only thing I know how to do is draw and paint and perform various protective charms!" And do muggle cleaning, but he doesn't mention that.

But Seamus has already hauled out a few dirty glasses and filled them with Firewhisky "Let's do this!" he shouts. "To our new pub! To the Hog's Head!"

"That stuff has _so_ many calories," says Lavender

"It's probably gone off," says Parvati.

Luna has wandered off to the back of the pub and is talking to something on the ceiling in a sing-song voice.

"Seamus, we're not opening up this pub," says Dean exasperatedly.

Seamus ends up drinking all the Firewhisky by himself, but they do, in the end, decide to take over the Hog's Head.

...

The first thing they do is hang up a new sign, because, as Lavender puts it, "first impressions are the most important thing!"

They keep the motive of the Hog's Head, but Dean paints it as a pleasant, smiling hog, with no blood splatters. It looks nice.

After that they clean. A lot. Muggle cleaning, which is painful and tedious and involves Seamus swearing a lot and cursing Aberforth, Merlin, his absent father, and all manner of other people. It turns out that there isn't any kind of dirtiness charm on the place. Hermione confirms this with an 'isn't-it-obvious-you-two-are-ridiculous' kind of look. It is just so grimy that a few spells won't do the trick.

"Magic isn't infallible, you know," says Hermione. "It doesn't solve everything." She doesn't stay to help them clean.

They do make some interesting discoveries, though. There are only three rooms for guests and one of them houses a family of snakes, Aberforth has a framed painting of a goat above his bed, the cellar contains a bored ghoul and there seem to be about two dozen pointless charms on some of the objects and rooms. Dean does not understand why the stairs have to scream at you in Russian if you wear pink socks.

Harry loans them some gold (Dean supposes he has more gold than he knows what to do with), so they throw out everything that smells funny and buy some new drinks. (Well, Dean throws out everything that smells funny, Seamus insists on tasting it first.) This of course prompts Parvati and Lavender to come over and sit on top of the bar drinking butterbeer and watching them scrub the floor. Dean catches Seamus and Lavender trying to sneak away for a quick shag at least twice a day. Sometimes Padma joins them, a lace veil hiding the ugly burn scar on her face. She likes to read large history textbooks and Witch Weekly: The Fashion Edition.

Seamus' younger sister, Sorrel, who has just graduated from Hogwarts, visits often as well. Seamus doesn't let her drink anything but pumpkin juice, not even butterbeer. She takes along her portable radio and turns it up full volume, singing along at the top of her lungs. She doesn't help clean, either.

"Why is she always here?" Dean asks.

"Trust me, bein' stuck with me mam all summer does things to you. Even this place looks nicer than that tiny feckin' cottage."

Dean tells his family about the pub, but they can't visit because Hogsmeade is invisible to Muggles. His little sisters think it's cool, though. He brings some Butterbeer for them to try and they like it so much they all get a little bit tipsy. His mum forbids "magic food" after that.

Dean asks Luna if she can put an advertisement in the Quibbler for them. She responds by doing a whole three page story about the Hog's Head. It goes a bit too in depth on the inn's colorful and rather violent history, and Luna insists on mentioning every possible magical creature that lives, or could be living beneath the floorboards. But Dean appreciates it all the same. A lot of people read The Quibbler these days, the Prophet's sort of lost credibility since the War, and Luna's a war hero and all that.

But Neville helps them clean, and for that, Dean is the most grateful.

...

The girl is tall and blonde and freckled and Dean doesn't recognize her at first.

"Hi Dean, um, I saw your story in the Quibbler and I was wondering if you we're looking for any, er, help?" The last part is definitely a question.

Dean rests his hands on the bar and grins. "Can I have your name?"

She looks at him, her mouth open. "Dean? It's me, Demelza."

Demelza? He hasn't seen her in three years, not since the War. Last he heard, she had disappeared off to America after her sister died. "Oh, Demelza, I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you!" Dean comes out from behind the bar and gives her a hug. "You've gotten really tall!"

She smiles. Dean remembers Demelza as proud and bright and open, always quick to laugh, or sometimes cry. Her smile is a bit tight now, a bit strained. "Is Seamus here, too?"

"No, he's out with Lavender."

"They got married, didn't they?" Demelza chews her lip. "It's too bad I couldn't come."

"That's right, how was America? When did you get back?”

Demelza gets a closed-off look. "It was alright, I suppose. Different than here. Bigger. More Muggles. I've only been back in England for a month. Living with my mum."

Dean call tell she doesn't like talking about it. "Yeah...yeah, so about needing help? We could really use someone who actually knows anything about working in a bar."

Her smile is a little brighter this time. "Oh, yes, when I was in New York I was a bartender for almost a whole year! I can waitress, too, and clean, and do just about everything!"

This is helpful, because Seamus and Dean can't do anything. So Demelza becomes the barmaid. She teaches them how to mix drinks and store alcohol and spends hours arranging the tables and chairs. On her breaks she trims her hair in the sink, reads The Quibbler and various Muggle newspapers, and foretells future events using quotes from classic Muggle literature.

"By hook or by crook this peril too shall be something that we remember " she tells Dean. He isn't sure if she is making a prophecy or stating a fact, but appreciates it all the same.

...

Finally, after Dean and Seamus and Lavender have moved all their belongings upstairs, after all the dirt that could be removed has been removed from the floor, after the broken chimney, windows, door, toilet and roof have been repaired, after they've sent an owl to everyone they know, the evening the Hog's Head opens finally comes.

Dean and Seamus were expecting a small crowd: their friends, mostly, some former members of the DA, and probably some crusty old witches and wizards who used to go there when Aberforth was alive. But -

"Holy shite, how many people read the Quibbler?" says Seamus, surveying the jam-packed inn. "There are like a hundred people in here!"

Jimmy Peakes walks by with five butterbeers hovering in front of him. "All right, Finnigan?" he asks, clapping Seamus on the back. "Place looks great, lads!"

"Thanks," says Dean. Seamus' mouth is hanging open.

"I told you that an enlargement charm would be a good idea," says Lavender, sidling up. "You should always listen to me." The full moon was two days ago, so there are still dark shadows underneath her eyes, but she looks happy enough. Dean's at least seventy percent sure her elaborate hairdo is being held up with magic.

Demelza looks happy as well, even though the crowd in front of the bar shows no sign of thinning. Dean watches as she waves her wand with her left hand, causing a Firewhiskey bottle to pour a line of shots, while she simultaneously uses her right hand to mix a cocktail.

Lavender has evidently noticed him watching Demelza. "So, Dean," she says slyly. "Demelza looks quite pretty. And she's always hanging around here."

"Lav, she works here." Dean rolls his eyes.

"Don't bother," says Parvati, appearing next to them in a whirl of clinking earrings and perfume. "She doesn't play for Dean's team, anyway. Padma said that she caught Demelza kissing Terry's little sister. Like really fucking full blown snogging."

"That doesn't mean she doesn't play for Dean's team!" protests Lavender. "That just means she plays for Terry's sister's as well. Speaking of, is she the one who ran naked through Hogsmeade for a dare?"

"I think she was wearing knickers. And Michael said that she did it because she was drunk on dragon vodka."

Terry actually told Dean himself that it was for a dare and that she was wearing knickers and a bra, but the knickers had been too big and that they had fallen down while she was running. But something much more important has caught his eye: the chime near the door has gone off, and Luna's come inside. She's wearing green robes with glitter and has roses in her hair. Lots of roses. If Dean squints it actually looks like she has pink, poofy hair. She looks absolutely amazing and Dean can't take his eyes off her.

"And that's the number one reason why trying to hook Dean up with Demelza would never work," he hears Parvati say from behind him.

He whirls around. "Am I really that obvious?"

Seamus and Lavender immediately break out into hysterical laughter, holding onto each other like they're drowning. "Mate-" Seamus chokes out, but is apparently unable to go on. Dean rolls his eyes again and goes over to meet Luna.

"You look really beautiful," he tells her.

"Thank you, Dean" she says seriously and stands up on tiptoe. At first, Dean is unsure of what she's trying to do, maybe look over his shoulder? But then, after a moment, he realizes she wants to kiss his cheek, so he leans down and lets her. Luna's not particularly short, but Dean kept growing even after puberty was long over. Even Ron is only average compared to him.

His cheek feels pleasantly warm where she kissed him. "Do you want something to drink?" he asks.

"Oh, yes, please." Luna fishes around in the pocket of her robes and comes out with a small role of parchment. "I brought a recipe of my mum's with me. Her favorite drink. I don't know if Demelza can make it, though?"

"Demelza can make everything," Dean says reassuringly and Luna slips her hand through his and smiles up at him.

Luna gets her drink and Dean chats with her about her dad and the new art projects they're both working on at the moment. They split, though, when she goes to get her next one. Dean tries to greet and mingle with everyone there, like a good host, while Luna sits with Ginny and Harry at one of the back tables, talking and laughing.

It seems to be working out well, everyone is in good spirits, at least, which is a relief, because events with large groups of war survivors and alcohol often end up being weep-fests. Dean shudders as he remembers Hannah Abbott's twentieth birthday party. Even Zacharias Smith had been crying, the slime.

The party winds down at about five in the morning and by six, almost everyone has apparated home. Seamus and Lavender have long since disappeared upstairs, Demelza is clearing up glasses, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, and Abigail Bones are asleep on one of the couches, and a middle-aged man whom Dean has never seen before is passed out at the bar.

"You fixed it up really nicely," says Dennis Creevey, shaking Dean's hand before he leaves. With him, Dean notices, is Sorrel, looking tipsy but pleased.

"Didn't Seamus send you home at midnight?" Dean asks.

"You won't tell him, will you?" She makes puppy-dog eyes at him.

"Of course not," says Dean and the pair of them apparate off together, laughing.

Dean shakes his head and makes his way over to Demelza, who is setting some chairs upright. "You don't have to do all that," he tells her. "It's okay, me and Seamus will do it later. You can go home. You were amazing, by the way. I'm totally impressed."

A smile lights up Demelza's weary face. "Thanks, Dean. Just let me know if you need me!" Dean promises he will and she gathers her things and apparates away as well.

Normally, Dean would be a little warier about leaving the door unlocked with no protective spells, but they're in Hogsmeade, and Parvati has put some sort of thief-detector spell on the place, so he figures they should be alright and goes upstairs to bed.

His bed, it turns out, is already occupied. By no one less than Luna, who is sleeping peacefully, snoring a little bit. Dean had been bit hurt that she hadn't said goodbye to him, but it seems she hadn't even left. She's washed the makeup off her face, but the roses are still in her hair. When Dean was younger, his mum had taken him to see a Botticelli art exhibit in London and Dean had liked it so much they went back three times. Luna reminds Dean of one of those paintings: a Greek goddess sprawled out amongst the flowers.

He honestly has no idea why she's asleep in his bed, but at the moment he's too tired to care. So he brushes his teeth and puts on his pajamas and sits down next to her. She stirs a little bit, but doesn't wake up. Dean touches one of the roses in her hair. "I love you," he says very quietly, for no reason at all. The sun is faintly rising, the sky fading to lavender. Dean watches it for a moment, storing the color in his mind for later use. Then he, not wanting to lie down next to Luna lest she feel uncomfortable when she wakes up, gathers a pillow, eases a quilt out from under her arm, makes himself a nest on the floor, and falls asleep.

...

Dean wakes up around one in the afternoon to the sounds of Seamus and Lavender tickling each other or having sex or doing something that involves Lavender squealing and Seamus saying "fuck" and laughing a lot. Dean's rolls over and buries his head underneath the blankets. His back aches from sleeping on the wooden floor and he feels like Death himself but he forces himself to get up, wash his face and cast a muffliato charm in the direction of Seamus and Lavender's room. Dean doesn't understand the boundless amounts of energy they have for each other, but maybe that's a married-and-madly-in-love thing.

Luna is gone from his bed, but she has left behind the scent of roses and a scrap of parchment. It reads: _Thank you, Dean, for a delightful, magnificent, wonderful night. Your mattress is quite comfortable, also your ghoul is named Clyde and likes beans on toast. You look very nice while you sleep. Love, Luna._ Dean smiles, his heart warm, puts the note on his nightstand and goes downstairs, bracing himself for the damage.

It's alright really. If they were Muggles, it would take them more than a day to get everything straightened up, but they are wizards, for better or for worse, so it's nothing a few spells can't handle. There are lots and lots of empty goblets, and also some random objects (shoes, earrings, feathers, hand mirrors) that look like they were transformed into goblets and then left lying around until the magic wore out. The chairs and tables are all topsy turvy, there's stains and spilled drinks absolutely everywhere, a cracked window (Dean knows for a fact that Lee Jordan accidentally punched it while in the middle of telling a very long story about escaping from Death Eaters that involved lots of hand gestures and dramatic pauses), a couple of pixies trying to make off with a bottle of Firewhisky and, most concerning to Dean, the older wizard who was asleep at the bar is still there. He's slipped off his stool and is dozing on the sticky floor.

Dean flicks his wand at the pixies, who make rude noises and zoom out through the window. Then he crouches down and shakes the wizard's shoulder. “Excuse me, sir?”

“Mergfmlp,” the wizard mumbles and then suddenly bolts up right. “I knew your father, boy.”  
“What?” says Dean, who doesn't know if he should be startled or annoyed at being called 'boy'. “I-I don't think so, sir.”

The wizard picks himself up off the floor and straightens his tie. “Oh, I most certainly did. You're Dean Thomas, aren't you?”

“Yes. I am. But my father was a Muggle, sir, at least we think he was.” Dean rarely thinks about his real father. When the war had started, and they had started rounding up and doing Merlin-knows-what to Muggleborns, he had prayed every night that he would mysteriously turn up, with a wand and a family tree that would prove Dean wasn't a Muggleborn after all. But after a week or so Dean had realized that would never happen and had gone on the run the minute he heard whispers of Azkaban, of young Muggleborn witches and wizards having their memories wiped and being sent back to their parents essentially brain dead. Or sometimes just dead-dead. Still, his prayers hadn't been that outlandish. Colin and Dennis Creevey's long lost mum had shown up literally minutes before their trial, proven she was a witch and that they were her children and then disappeared right after with hardly a word to spare. She had saved the two of them from Azkaban and Memory Charms and the like, but, as everyone knows, Fate always has her way somehow and Colin died anyway.

But this is not the time. The wizard is peering at Dean, squinting. “I knew your father, all right. Interesting chap.” He abruptly sticks out his hand. “Cassander Guthrie, former head of the Department of Mysteries.” Dean tentatively shakes his hand. “Very impressed with you and your young Irish friend's effort, will certainly be coming back, I thank you for getting rid of that awful smell of goat, Merlin bless you and good day.” And he disapparates.

Dean stares at nothing for a second and then blinks and shakes his head. He has a feeling Luna would get along with Cassander Guthrie quite well.

.....

It isn't until about three or four days after the opening that Dean realizes he and Seamus have made a big mistake. You see, the Hog's Head was called the Hog's Head Inn. Not bar. Inn. As in people came there to sleep. To spend the night. Like a hotel. And out of the four bedrooms, Seamus and Lavender have claimed one, Dean has claimed one, one has been taken over by Lavender's things (hats, shoes, books, jewelry, enchanted nail polish, every letter anyone has ever sent her ever), and one is the guest room, also known as Parvati's home away from home and where Neville houses all the plants his flat doesn't have room for.

Dean had just assumed that no one really went there to stay the night, that people just drank and traded whatever illegal substances they had. And Seamus had said that no one had ever seen Aberforth actually have a guest. But one night, around eleven, while Dean is organizing the bottles in the back room and Demelza is serving the guests (a rowdy group of young Russian witches, a few old men, two Quidditch captains who are glaring at each other and having a whispered fight about what sounds like Gobstones), a wizard bursts in and demands a room.

“Dean?” Demelza's voice is tentative. “There's a gentleman here who would like a room?”

Fuck, thinks Dean, and brushes the dirt of his robes. “Sorry, sir.” he says, coming out of the back room. “We don't have rooms anymore. We're strictly a bar now. You could try the Three Broomsticks or-.”

“No.” The wizard is short and astoundingly red in the face and, from what Dean can tell, drunk. “No, I have stayed here many times before. Aberforth always had a room for me.”

That's because no one else was loopy enough to actually sleep here. “I'm terribly sorry, sir. But none of the rooms are available. New management. Me, actually.” He puts out his hand, about to introduce himself but the wizard cuts him off again, his voice loud.

“This is simply inexcusable! The Hog's Head as always provided lodging! You teenagers can not simply just waltz in here and change everything. This is a fine old establishment and you are besmirching it with filth! No better than Muggles. Why you're probably a Mudblood yourself!” He is shouting by now.

One of the Quidditch captains, the one called Nightray, has very casually placed his hand on his wand. Demelza looks shocked and worried, but Dean just feels angry. He keeps his voice perfectly neutral, though. “Sir, there are no rooms available. I'm very sorry, but that's the end of it.”

It happens in barely a second. The angry wizard whips out his wand, shoots something at Dean, who ducks, a row of bottles behind him shatters and Parvati comes twirling in through the door and casts a quick, precise Body-Bind Charm. The wizard falls to the floor, stiff and immobile.

The entire bar is silent, staring at Parvati. She sweeps her hair behind her head and beckons the two Quidditch captains with a flick of her finger. “Drag him outside and summon Law Enforcement, please.” The two of them exchange glances and do as she asks.

“Parvati.” says Dean, shaking glass off his robes. Behind him, Demelza fixes the shattered bottles with a murmur of _reparo_. “Thanks. How did you know-?”

“Lucky,” she shrugs, sauntering up to the bar. “I got here just as he was beginning to yell, took out my wand just to be careful, saw him take out his and well, you saw. Are you all right?” The question is directed at Demelza.

“I'm fine, just startled.” Demelza shakes her head. “What spell did he use? Not an Unforgivable, right?”

The three of them share glances, remembering, of course, the Battle, the amount of Unforgivables they saw there and the damage they had done. “I think,” says Parvati, “that you wouldn't have been able to repair the bottles so easily if it had been unforgivable. Besides, I don't think he was so drunk as to risk Azkaban.”

Dean still feels uneasy. Azkaban has gotten a lot less terrifying after the removal of the dementors.

“Anyway.” Parvati toys with her earrings. “Is Lavender here? I need to talk to her.”

“No,” says Dean. “It's Seamus' night off, they're in London having dinner.”

Parvati stares at him for a moment, her eyes appraising him, and then nods. “Okay, you'll do. Can I steal you for a bit?”

Dean glances at Demelza, who flaps her hands in a go-ahead gesture. Parvati grabs Dean's sleeve, pulls him upstairs and into the guest room and flounces down on the bed. Dean remains standing, his hands in his pockets, waiting.

“I think Padma might kill herself,” says Parvati, and starts to cry.

“Oh,” Dean says uselessly and his stomach lurches. “Oh, Parvati.” He sits down next to her, taking her hand.

“She's been so miserable lately.” Parvati is a delicate crier, not one to snuffle or sob. Her tears drip almost elegantly down her cheek, leaving behind thick black streaks. “And we keep having rows, and Terry still won't talk to her, and all she does is read her stupid history books and tell me how awful I am and how much she hates herself and how she wants to die and how I don't understand, how I'll never understand, because I'm still b-beautiful and - and, I don't know what to say to her. I love her more than anything and I am so so sorry for what happened to her and I would give everything for her face to be unburnt, I would give anything to go back in time and save her from the Fiendfyre and -.” She stares at her lap and cries some more, while Dean holds her hands and waits, not saying anything. He has never been close to Padma. He knows Lavender is good friends with her, and that Seamus and Neville formed bonds with her during their last year of Hogwarts, while Dean ran for his life and slept on the ground and wandered aimlessly around forests and drank too much wine at Shell Cottage. And then after the war Padma distanced herself from most people, making it hard to get to know her.

“But it's like, so many people have scars and disfigurements, I mean look at Lavender’s neck! And her back! Hannah's older sister got her hand cursed off! And that little boy, the Ravenclaw fourth year, I can't remember his name, who lost both his eyes! And that's just on the outside. I mean, we try, all of us try, but the truth his, we're all fucked. Every single one of us. And Padma is no more or less fucked than any of us.”

“But we're getting better,” says Dean, squeezing her hand hard. “Slowly, all of us are getting better. We're recovering. And Padma may be taking a while, but she'll recover, too.” He doesn't say I'm sure or I promise, because he isn't sure and he can't promise. But he can hope.

Parvati nods numbly. “I'm just so worried. I can't lose her. She's my twin. She's part of me. Have you seen George Weasley lately?”

“No,” says Dean, startled.

“Exactly. No one ever sees him.”

“But Parvati, remember after the Battle? When you were so sure she was going to...you know. And she didn't. She never did. She loves you, Parvati. I don't think she'd do that to you.”

Parvati looks at him, blinking back tears. She is so very beautiful, probably the most beautiful person Dean has ever seen, even more beautiful than Luna. Dean has painted her many many times, but he can never do her justice. She sighs and then carefully puts her head on Dean's shoulder. “I love you, Dean.”

“I love you, too.”

They stay like that for a while, curled up together, until Parvati starts to giggle.

“What?” asks Dean, smiling.

She covers her mouth with her hand and giggles a bit more. “I just - you know, it's stuff like this that makes everyone who doesn't know us think we're a couple.”

Dean laughs. “Or maybe it's just because we're around Seamus and Lav so much, it's like we have to be paired off, too.”

“Or because people think that since we both have brown skin, we automatically will end up together.”

The two of them laugh a little bit. “Jokes on them,” says Parvati. “They don't know that I'm a massive lesbian.” She sticks out her tongue and waggles it.

“Or that I'm in love with-” Dean finds it hard to describe Luna.

“ _Luna_ ,” says Parvati, and the two of them start laughing again, not stopping until Neville comes upstairs and proclaims he has to water his Brightly Spotted Flitterbloom and hey, what's so funny?


End file.
